WILEY FORD – Calling the Potomac Highlands Airport Authority “a house divided,” chairperson Cindy Pyles said this week that the April 23 vote to terminate Terry Malone as manager of the Greater Cumberland Regional Airport in Wiley Ford was not done properly.
“It was done in executive session. It should not have been done that way,” Pyles told the Mineral Daily News Tribune.
According to the West Virginia Sunshine Law, no decisions or votes may be made during an executive session. If a governing body goes behind closed doors to discuss a personnel issue, they must either take the vote or make the decision after they go back into open session.
Pyles, who does not have a vote because of serving as chair of the authority, said the vote was 5-2 to terminate Malone.
“I did not have a vote, and of course, Terry didn't have a vote.”
According to Mona Ridder, executive director of the Mineral County Development Authority who was present for the meeting, “there was no notion and there was no second” when the authority members came out of the executive session.
The bi-state Airport Authority is composed of nine members – five from Maryland and four from West Virginia. With two of those members being Pyles and Malone, that reduced the number of members eligible to vote on the termination to seven.
Ridder expressed her concern about the operation of the airport and its future, saying “the airport is the most important regional economic development asset we have.”
During today’s meeting, the committee met to discuss how to advertise for the position and what their next move would be.
There was no attorney present nor was the question of legality brought to attention according to Pyles.
The Potomac Highlands Airport Authority plans to go ahead and advertise the position in papers around the area beginning next week.
“Some have already called about the position, but we told them to wait until its advertised,” said Pyles.
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